Guest Blogger Rhonda Buss – Part 2 Collar Tutorial!

This week’s collar is a simple one, the Revere Collar. It’s great on a shirt where you would like a little more detail, but don’t want a collar against the back of your neck. Revere is another name for lapel. It is actually an extension of the front opening of the garment which folds back revealing the facing.

All of our collars will be drafted using Butterick 5678 as our base pattern.

As usual, I can rarely leave a pattern alone, they are like a blank canvas that just begs for something more. I drafted the revere collar, but decided to spice it up a bit by adding a bias accent around the entire shirt. The bias gives the effect of a collar without the drafting!

In this picture you can see the that the collar is just a lapel.

From the back you can see that there is no collar, just the bias trim.

To draft the revere collar, I suggest transferring the center front pattern piece of the shirt to a new piece of paper. I cut away the button extension on the pattern because I added the bias trim to the front of the shirt. If you would like a normal button front shirt, leave the button extension on the pattern.

Determine how low you would like the front opening on your shirt to be. Take a tape measure and measure from the bottom of your neck down your center front to determine this measurement. Transfer that measurement to the pattern and place a mark as you see in the picture below.

From the shoulder point, draw a straight line to the center front mark. This will be the roll line of the collar.

Now draw in the desired shape of your collar. My collar is 4″ wide at the shoulder area and is slightly curved back to the center front mark.

Fold your paper on the roll line. Using a tracing wheel, trace over the drawn lines of the collar.

Unfold the paper and draw in the traced lines.

You will no longer be using the lines of the original neckline.

In the picture below you can see how the collar will fold back.

The final pattern. I placed notches at the shoulder and at the center front and then drew in the roll line of the collar. Be sure to add seam allowance to the center front of the pattern. I did not show the seam allowance in the picture below.

This collar needs a facing. To cut out the shirt, use the original pieces of the pattern, the side front, side back and the center back and cut as directed on the pattern. Use the new pattern piece that was drafted for the front and cut 2 for the front of the shirt and 2 for the facing, 4 in total.

If you would like to add the bias accent as I did, cut a bias strip 3″ wide. Sew 1 edge of the bias strip around the entire front of the shirt. Press the other edge 1/4″ and then fold the bias strip in half and match the pressed edge to the seam line around the front of the shirt. Hand stitch in place. To add the buttons, you will need to leave small openings on the right side of the shirt. An easy way to remember where the buttonholes go on a woman’s shirt is this little saying, “A woman is always right!” In other words, the buttonholes always go on the right side of the garment. A sewing teacher told me this little saying when I was in high school and I have yet to forget it!

My shirt is also straight along the bottom edge. I folded up the shirt tail on the pattern and made the finished edge straight all the way around. The 3″ bias strip was also sewn to the bottom edge of the shirt.

Thank you so much for these tutorials. I’ve always been one to follow the pattern and I’m excited to see what can be done. Your instructions are wonderfully clear, and I’m looking forward to branching out.